New website platform approved by Selectboard

BELCHERTOWN – An allocation of about $36,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds was approved by the Selectboard for a new website platform called CivicPlus.

There is an annual reoccurring cost of $11,747. The town .is currently paying $6,500 for its current website. The reoccurring cost won’t kick in until next financial year. The project of creating a new website for the town would take four to eight months.

A representative presented to the Selectboard on Monday evening; CivicPlus Solutions Engineer Brian Wheeler spoke to the board about the company’s features for websites.

“Our design goal is to build your new website will be to get people where they need to go in one or two clicks,” he said. “We know if it takes more than that, they’re going to get frustrated.”

There is an ability to create an account on the website, which allows users to be able to sign up to email and/or text message communications.

There is also a predictive search feature, which have suggestions for users. There is an ability to have a news carousel, which features articles and photos.

The website can also include a calendar of upcoming meetings and events. Users will also be able to set up notifications for calendar events.

“On the police page…this is what we call a department header, it’s a way you can give special treatment to a public facing department,” Wheeler said. “It’s the same URL, but…it feels likethey’ve got their own website.”

There is also an accessibility function on the page which allows users to be able to change the contrast of the images, the text size and font.

“With AudioEye and our website platform, you will be at the current level of accessibility requirements,” he said. “It’s going to be constantly remediating and validating your site content to ensure it’s at that level.”

He added that the platform can align with the town’s personality and design goals.

Following the presentation, Selectboard member Lesa Lessard Pearson asked if there was a way the pages could be vetted before being published. Wheeler said there were two methods to do that.

She also asked if there was an ability to track changes. Wheeler said no, but there is an ability to create versions of a page.

Selectboard member Ron Aponte asked if the website would be mobile-ready. “We went over this, that was one of the priorities [of the Communications Committee],” he said.

The platform has responsive design that would reorder the page, allowing it to be used on a mobile device or a tablet.

Lessard Pearson asked if the town would need to create an entirely new website or would information from the old one be transferred to the new.

Wheeler said the work would be included in the scope for the project of creating a new website.

“We migrate your content over to the new platform and we do it by hand,” he said. “Our staff touch every document, image, and page and rebuild it from scratch. That’s going to help ensure that it meets the highest standard and that it’s ADA compliant.”

Training is also included in the scope of the project.

They will also be working with boards and committees to assign responsibilities for pages on the website.

Selectboard Chair Ed Boscher said he wanted to remind the board that in its major goals and objectives, there was an item to improve transparency and communication within the town.

“We just have one final approval with this board to actually knock that objective out of the ballpark,” he said.